曾 Céng
[an indication that an action once happened, or a state that once existed]
the sentence that popped up
when I translated this character,
discovered within an interview
conducted half a world away
spoken by a familiar face.
I cannot read the lines around your eyes
when you speak of a pursuit
and you smile
so
I look back
In order to defy the understanding
that I lack
Exhibition view
Photographed during the KASK Graduation Expo 2022, Gent.
This was the project with which I graduated my master’s degree in the visual arts back in 2022. A deeply personal work about family and the (dis)connection between people no longer here. A project made in the hopes of finding answers, or at least, some sort of consolidation.
Whether I found it or not, I cannot say for sure. I believe, 3 years after completing this project (I am writing this in April 2025), that it cannot truly be found. What has been lost, cannot always be restored. But looking back, I have found acceptance even gratitude. For everything that was and everything that is.